Courtesy Vancouver Sun:

Gangsters have “hit” lists. The Saskatchewan Roughriders have what they call a “shit list,” a team T-shirt made up with the names, numbers and faces of B.C. Lions who are in their bad books. Nothing too personal or exclusional about it. Every Lion made the list.

Defensive end Fred Perry proudly held up the shirt for a reporter late Sunday afternoon in the team’s locker room at BC Place, pointing in particular to the face of Dave Dickenson, the B.C. quarterback who took six of the seven sacks registered by the Riders in their 26-17 demolition of the Lions.

“The biggest factor was that everybody in this locker room wanted it more than they did,” said Riders defensive end John Chick, a diabetic who plays with an insulin pump implanted in his right side. Chick was asked if another substance had been administered through the pump Sunday, considering the way the Roughriders’ adrenalin-fuelled defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage.

“No, just the usual,” said Chick, who had two sacks. “We had more want-to.”

Defensive tackle Scott Schultz picked up the same theme, suggesting his team knew early on that the Lions didn’t pack as much intensity in their kits as the Riders did. That realization didn’t come until later for the 54,712 fans who saw the Lions act more like the team that suffered their first lost at home in a year to the Riders on Aug. 2 than one intent on repeating as Grey Cup champions.

“You can feel it,” Schultz said. “It’s like the blood’s in the water. And the sharks start swirling in circles. We came into this game with a better mindset than they did. We felt it from the start. We had more want-to.”

There’s that expression again. Sadly for the Lions, they couldn’t disagree with it. It’s difficult to sugar coat the kind of offensive lethargy that undid a five-sack performance by defensive end Cameron Wake and an overall effort from the defence that might have been good enough, ordinarily. Five turnovers, however — a punt return misplay by Ian Smart, two interceptions thrown by Jarious Jackson, a Dickenson fumble and another loss of the ball on downs, made it too easy for the Riders — and too psychologically damaging for the Lions, to say nothing of what Saskatchwan did on the scoreboard.

The Lions had the best takeaway-to-giveaway ratio in the CFL this season — plus-25 — and they gave up only 25 sacks in 17 games, prior to their regular-season finale against the Calgary Stampeders. Resting starting left tackle Rob Murphy in their final tuneup, however, the Lions were dinged for seven sacks by Calgary.

That total jumped to 14 in two games, even though the Lions were allowed to play Sunday with right tackle Jason Jimenez, who appealed a one-game suspension for his clip that broke the leg of Stampeder Anthony Gargiulo.

The cohesive advantage proved to be illusory, though, when starting right guard Sherko Haji-Rasouli went out with a hamstring tear, and his replacement, Dean Valli, wobbled to the sidelines after being contacted in the helmet with a knee. Practice roster player Lorne Plante was forced to fill the gap. Plante had yet to take a regular-season snap before Sunday. And while his inexperience was apparent, nothing he did probably would have changed the outcome.

“Look, the seven sacks didn’t come over that kid,” Schultz explained. “I think they came from everywhere.”

Running back Joe Smith, who scored the Lions’ first touchdown on a one-yard run to get his team back in the game after Saskatchewan had taken a 10-0 lead, picked up only 35 yards on eight carries. That lack of production was a reflection on the blockers who couldn’t spring him free. He had 25 yards on one singular burst and just 10 yards in total in the other seven attempts.

“It came down to they wanted it more,” Smith said.

“They took it to us. It all boiled down to that. I wasn’t surprised by what they did. I was just surprised we didn’t have more fight.”

Minus two of their top receivers — Matt Dominguez and Mike Washington, who were injured — and with their most effective running back, Wes Cates, playing with a stress fracture in his foot, the Roughriders were in rough shape against a team with the luxury of 13 days to recover from previous battles. Perhaps it was too much time, and too many days to overthink the game ahead.

“Sometimes, when you get a wounded dog backed up in a corner, there’s nothing for him to do but come out biting,” Schultz said. “We came out snarling.”

Dickenson, whose future with the Lions will be cast under immediate speculation, rather than a week from now, briefly gave a struggling Lions’ offence some life when he completed his first three passes — as many in his first series as Jackson did over the course of 13:37 — when he entered the game just before the first half ended. Jackson, 9-2 as a starter entering the game, completed just three of 12 passes for 51 yards, two of his completions coming on a short touchdown drive that ended with Smith’s score.

“I wanted to finish what I started,” Jackson said. “It didn’t happen that way. It wasn’t my decision. I didn’t think it would happen when it happened. I’m not mad about it. I’m a little frustrated. I could be bitter about it. I’ve helped this team get to this point. It’s disappointing.”

Dickenson completed 14 of 19 passes for 128 yards, which included an 11-yard touchdown pass to Geroy Simon that cut the Roughriders’ lead to 23-17 in the third quarter.

Smart’s 78-yard kickoff return preceded the touchdown, and the little man more than atoned for his first-quarter fumble with 254 yards, which included a 47-yard punt return.

Even before the game, however, Dickenson admitted that he didn’t feel “as quick and as strong as I’ve been in the past.”

Because of his lengthy inactivity through post-concussion syndrome, he had accumulated the equivalent of just three weeks of meaningful playing time.

“I thought they would make the [quarterback] change after the half, but I guess they wanted to see if I could get something going,” Dickenson said. “I did provide something for the guys, but I couldn’t get it going. Honestly, they were the better team. I don’t think anyone here is doubting it. We just got outplayed.”

In the one-game affairs that are the football playoffs, that’s all it takes to turn a noisy dome into silence.